African National Congress Ekurhuleni region held a memorial service of the late Cde Ketsi Isaac Lehoko on the 11thFebruary. The son of the soil, comrade Khetsi was born and raised in the dusty streets of Katlehong , Ekurhuleni, on the 4th of September 1955. This is a very important year in the calendar of the ANC –for it was the year in which the Congress of the People gathered in Kliptown on the 25th and 26thof June and adopted the Freedom Charter - the common programme enshrining the hopes and aspirations of all the progressive people of South Africa. It can be said, therefore, that the ANC was written in the stars for comrade Khetsi – that it was part of his very DNA. He became an active and dedicated member of the East Rand People’s Organisation (ERAPO) – a pioneer civic movement that championed the fight against apartheid at a community level. He was also an active member of National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA) under the leadership of Ntate Curtis Nkondo, the former president of the Azanian Peoples Organisation (AZAPO) who would subsequently help establish the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and go on to become one of the leaders of the United Democratic Front.Comrade Khetsi was a trade unionist at heart. His activism in NEUSA, the predecessor to the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) was reflective of his deep commitment to using trade unionism as a mechanism for societal change.Together with his other comrades, he led the Teacher Unity Talks. The idea of these talks was a brainchild of the then ANC President General, comrade Oliver Reginald Tambo, who believed in the importance of having all teacher organisations merged and unified into one union of workers in the country. His union activism would also see him later join the South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU), an affiliate of the UDF.He was immaculate and steadfast in championing the workers struggle for living wage and later became a local secretary of COSATU’s biggest and strongest local branch in the country,headquartered in the historic township of Katlehong where he was born. He would later beappointed as the Education Officer of COSATU.But comrade Khetsi’s activism went beyond the Katlehong community and the trade union movement, and I daresay, beyond organised politics. He was also what we regard as an academic activism – an activist who is not only committed to the pursuit of social justice, but one who is also deeply invested in the ideational space.He completed his schooling and teacher training in QwaQwa. Following this, he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in School Improvement from the University of Nottingham and then went on to pursue a Masters’ Degree in Education from the University of Manchester in England. At the time of his passing, he was a doctoral candidate at the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies at the University of Johannesburg. The man that we are gathered here to honour was evidently a true revolutionary who was not only guided by a great feeling of love for his people, but one who was also guided by a moral conviction that the only way for South Africa to become a better country is by achieving true democracy –democracy that was inclusive of all races, democracy that was non-sexist and just as importantly,democracy that centred the rights of workers and the working class at its heart.Today as we gather here, we must reflect on whether what comrade Khetsi dedicated his life to is still on course, or whether this dream of his, of comrade Oliver Tambo and of mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, is a dream we are still pursuing or if it is a dream deferred Comrade Khetsi was a man of principle and integrity. These are principles that we too have adopted in the way that we govern the City of Ekurhuleni. “Today marks the conclusion of one more lap in that relay race - still to continue for many decades -when we take leave so that the competent generation of lawyers, computer experts, economists,financiers, industrialists, doctors, engineers and above all, ordinary workers and peasants can take the ANC into the new millennium”.In memory of comrade Khetsi, may we be the generation that takes the ANC into the next glorious 100 years.
Amandla!
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